Strike Me Once And Call Me Eureka
by tips221
Summary: Jessie Evans, a teenage, Jaeger mad engineer who dreams of being a pilot, jumps at the chance to work on Striker Eureka. Little does she know her new assignment will bring on more than she expects in terms of adventure, shock, betrayal and romance eventual ChuckXOC, rated T for slight language, R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer - I own nothing but my character, plot, and OC's!**

**Bit of a test run, if you guys like it, I'll keep going!**

**Hope you enjoy! First fanfic so please R&R :)**

**Tips xxxx**

"Cam!"  
"Oh, hey Jess."  
"What's going on?"  
"I have no idea."  
"Seriously? You've not been told anything?"  
"Nothing."  
"That's ridiculous..."  
"I know. Chief engineer and I don't even get told the agenda on an engineers meeting" Cam grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest and huffing as he surveyed his teams congregating in the foyer area of the Shatterdome. So far, the teams from Cherno Alpha and Gipsy Danger had arrived, and he could see the first engineers of Crimson Typhoon and Coyote Tango beginning to turn up. Looking around however, he couldn't see anyone from Striker Eureka.  
"Wait... There's no one from Striker here..." Jessie remarked from her place beside him, voicing his thoughts. Cam looked down at her, noticing her matching frown as she looked around. She looked up at him.  
"I heard from a couple of guys over on Cherno saying the Striker team were having problems with the repairs on her knee joints, that there was a problem inside the exoskeleton but they were to big to get in behind it, and they don't dare to take off the armour in case we get an unexpected Kaiju..." She said a little too innocently. Cam sighed. He knew where this was going.  
"Jessie..."  
"C'mon Cam! Please, I swear I won't ask for anything ever again! If you could put a good word in for me to Marshall, I might even get a permanent transfer!" She pleaded. If she had the chance to work on Striker, she knew she was going to do anything to make sure she got it. Not that she didn't like working on Cherno, though. In fact, she loved it, and she knew that Alexia and Sasha Kaidonovsky thought very highly of her. She loved working with the Jaegers mainly for the fact that she was small enough to fit underneath Cherno's thick armour to work repairs that no one else could reach, which meant she was trusted, respected, and she got to know the Jaegers inside and out. She had been assigned by Cam to Cherno to get some experience before moving on, but she occasionally helped over on Crimson and even once on Gipsy. Striker was the only Jaeger she hadn't worked on, and she was desperate to get her hands on the first and last Mark 5 Jaeger. She looked up at Cam with big, round eyes.  
"Jess, we don't even know what this is about yet!" He insisted.  
"But if there's an opening..."  
"Jessie, you know..."  
"But if there is, Cam!"  
"Jessie, you are too young. It's dangerous." Cam justified.  
"Oh c'mon, it's not like that hasn't stopped me before!" She shouted as he started to walk through the crowd towards the front of the group, hoping to address his engineers. Jessie caught up with him and latched onto his arm.  
"That one time when Cherno was getting sent out, and I got a com from Sasha telling me she felt the movement in the hand joint was restricted, but she couldn't stop because she had to get out to stop the Kaiju so I jumped from one of the gangways and climbed inside Cherno when they were walking through the hangar and dislodged that piece of metal whilst Cherno was moving and I was fine! Striker won't even be moving, and I understand that it's way more high tech than what I'm used to, but I've done all the research and studies in case something like this happened, I even..." She babbled frantically trying to make her case, barging through the other engineers after Cam. She trailed off when Cam spun round and grabbed her by the shoulders.  
"Jess. Firstly, thats a lie. Secondly, I don't know what this is about, okay? It might not have anything to do with Striker... But nothing, I'm still talking. Thirdly, I admire your determination and drive, and I promise you that if this is about more workers for Striker, then yes, I will make a personal request for a transfer for you alright? Even if it is just to get you to shut up..." He said teasingly. Jessie brightened at the prospect, grinning from ear to ear. She opened her mouth to say something but was quickly silenced by Cam.  
"Enough, okay? Go on, go join the others. I'll catch up with you after" he told her before walking to the front of the engineers. Buzzing, Jessie hopped off to join the others in her team from Cherno, her head turned expectantly to the front. The general air among the gathered workers was confusion, with a bit of worry and fear, as none of them knew what was about to be asked or told to them. Jessie stood at the far edge of the gathering. It was quite easy for her to just disappear whenever she felt like it, being so small, but standing at the edge gave her a good view of everyone else so she could see their reaction, and also allowed her to see Cam standing at the front, facing the engineers as they bombarded him with questions. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, and just when it was getting so loud the Jessie thought she'd have to put her hands over her ears, a booming voice coming from the balcony above her head silenced everyone. She knew straight away it was Marshall, and she kept her ears open in anticipation as he spoke. She saw Cam stand back, face turned up to watch Marshall, his arms crossed over his chest in a distinct show of displeasure at not being informed before the meeting. Her stomach filled with butterflies as he started to talk.  
"I suppose your wondering why you're all here. Well, we have to face facts that as the Kaiju attacks are getting more and more frequent and deadly, and you all know this. Recently, Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka were returned from a mission, both with severe damage. Gipsy is back up and running, but Striker is, unfortunately, not. So I'll cut to the chase. We need the engineering cadets from the fully functioning Jaegers to help restore Striker as quickly as possible." He told us calmly. Immediately, excited whispers started to break out among those who were cadets. Jessie's heart was pounding inside her chest as she looked up and made eye contact with Cam. They shared a smile and he nodded slightly. Jessie fought to contain the massive grin that she felt the urge to show. She knew that everyone wanted to work on Striker - who wouldn't? The only Mark 5 ever, and allegedly the best Jaeger there was, technology wise. Jessie knew it would be tough to get herself noticed in the midst of all the other people who would immediately volunteer for the job, but she felt confident that with a recommendation from Cam, she would get it for sure.  
"Now, before you get excited..." Marshall's voice rang out again, calling for silence.  
"I will only be taking a limited number of you - 20 is all we think we need. You are here because you are the best cadets currently going through the academy. Every single cadet here is on track to becoming a brilliant and skilled technician, but right now, we need the best of the best. And I want every single request electronically and by the end of the day. No exceptions. Those chosen will be reassigned tomorrow morning." He called out, making sure everyone heard.  
"Dismissed."  
He finished speaking and turned to walk back inside, dismissing them. Jessie immediately made a beeline for Cam, who was being questioned by about a dozen people asking for recommendations. As she got closer she heard him say loudly,  
"I am NOT giving Marshall Pentecost any recommendations! I don't care who you are, or what you do, it isn't fair if I do. Clear?"  
Jessie watched as the downhearted hopefuls got turned away and waited until everyone had dispersed before going up to Cam. He looked at her, smiling slightly as she walked over, a stupid grin on her face.  
"Did you HEAR that?!" She practically screamed from excitement. Cam made a motion that told her to shut up.  
"Yeah, but I can only recommend you electronically, same if you wanted to apply for it. You heard him Jess, he won't accept you if you say it to his face." Cam explained.  
"Yeah, I know, I heard! So what are you waiting for?" She replied impatiently.  
"I can't do it now Jess. I have to go over to Striker and assess where they need the most help okay? Then I'll do it." Cam promised.  
"But that's not fair! Cam, some people will have gone straight from this to send in requests, and you know Marshall, he'll just look at the first ones he sees and choose them!" Jessie whined.  
"Jess! I'll do it as soon as I can okay! Your lucky I'm doing it at all!" Cam snapped before walking away. Jessie stared after him. He was right of course. She didn't come first all the time. But she wanted this so badly - it was the second best thing after becoming a pilot! She sighed and ran a hand through her tangled hair. What was she supposed to do! If she didn't do something soon, she wouldn't even be considered.  
She had to talk to Marshall.  
Leap before you look.  
Turning on her heel, she blundered out of the Shatterdome, through the bulkhead doors locking it off from the rest of the base and down the corridor towards the Marshall's office. She saw him standing outside his door with some guy who looked vaguely familiar with a bulldog. This was her chance. She knew she had to do it before she thought about it or she'd start over thinking and it would put her off... That was pretty much her attitude to everything. She took a deep breath before walking over to the two men. She had never spoken to the Marshall before, afraid that if she did she'd draw too much attention to herself and he would realise she was way to young to be working in the Dome. The minimum age was 20, so at just 18, she would be in unthinkable trouble. But, she didn't have anywhere else to go, and when Cam picked her up from Sydney 8 years ago after the Kaiju attack that promoted the building of Striker Eureka, he took her under his engineering wing and by a few small lies and string pulling, he snuck her in to work with the Jaegers. And she loved every second of it.  
"Excuse me, Marshall Pentecost?" She said in a clear, strong voice to get his attention. He up from the conversation he was having with the other man, and looked her up and down. She stood at ease, being well familiar of this near army styled base.  
"Can I help you?" he asked in his distinct English accent.  
Go for it.  
"Yes, sir, actually you can. My name is Jessie Evans, I'm one of the cadets currently working on Cherno Alpha." She introduced herself to the two men. The one with the bulldog was looking at her with a small smile on his face.  
Creep.  
"I heard about the need for extra engineers to work on the repairs on Striker Eureka, and I just wanted to say that if you needed any extra hands, I'd be more than willing to help out." she managed to say without any "ums" or "so" or anything else she was usually guilt of muttering when she babbled. She also managed to stop herself from babbling. She was impressed with that. The Marshall was looking at her with a puzzled look on his face.  
"Miss Evans?" he asked.  
"Yes sir?"  
"How old are you?"  
Jessie's heart started pounding.  
"20, sir" she lied.  
"I see. And tell me Miss Evans, can you follow instructions?" he asked with a quizzical look. Jessie wasn't sure if this was a trick question or not.  
"...Yes, sir." She answered.  
"So when I said that I wanted electronic requests, what did you think that meant?"  
Oh dear... Congrats Jessie.  
"... Well sir, I thought that..."  
"No Miss Evans, you clearly didn't think at all, considering that you are currently standing in front of me. You couldn't follow a simple order such as sending an electronic request, I don't see how I could trust you to work on our most prized Jaeger, and to follow instructions. Do I make myself clear?" he said with immense control, stepping forward and hissing through his teeth in her ear. It was all Jessie could do to not to flinch.  
"With respect, Sir, I am by a mile the most capable cadet currently working..."  
"Miss Evans!"  
"Yes, sir." She whispered, knowing she'd properly blown it.  
"Good. Now back to work." Marshall said, straightening up and turning back to the other man, dismissing her. Taking her dismissal as gracefully as she could, she turned and headed back to the Shatterdome, feeling tears prick at her eyes. Why did she have to screw it up all the time. If she'd listened to Cam, he would've recommended her! Of course she would've gotten a transfer. But no, she had to always do what she thought was best and now her dreams lay in a pile at her feet. She was so annoyed at herself. Being an engineer on the Jaegers second best to actually being a pilot, but she wasn't Drift compatible, so there was no way she'd ever be able to pilot one of the amazing machines. Working with them was what she'd had to settle for. And she just killed any chance that she may have had of working on the best Jaeger there is. She slammed her hand against the control panel to open the doors into the Shatterdome in annoyance. Why was she such an idiot? She groaned from embarrassment as she walked through the doors when they swung open. She barely had a second to look up before she smacked into someone. Mumbling an apology she stepped back to see who it was she'd collided with. She looked up and saw the familiar face of Charlie... Or Felix. Charlie and Felix Leigh were the twins she worked along side with on Cherno, and Jessie could only tell them apart by the fact that Felix's short dark brown hair was very slightly darker than Charlie's. There were always happy and cheery, no matter what the situation, and were like big brothers to Jessie. She was convinced you couldn't meet more lovely people. They were both intelligent, charismatic, and 100% training and Drift compatible with each other, being twins. There were definitely in the line up for Jaeger pilots, despite being just 21, they were already a formidable pair of brothers. Usually, Jessie enjoyed their company immensely. But she really couldn't be bothered with them right now.  
"Hey Jess!" Felix said cheerily.  
Really not right now.  
"Charlie and I were just coming looking for you" he told her as his twin jogged up beside him.  
"Oh, you found her then?" Charlie asked, smiling at Jessie.  
"Yep, she crashed straight into me!" Felix replied.  
Jessie smiled as best as she could up at the two boys, despite knowing what was coming. She could tell Charlie was about to use the dreaded nickname...  
"So, Jevans, where you been?" He grinned as he dropped in the hated nickname and as Jessie barged past both him and his brother.  
"Don't call me that Charlie. We've had this discussion before, it's like me calling you guys... Cheigh and Fleigh!" She stifled a giggle at Fleigh, especially considering Felix was so tall he did everything but resemble a flea.  
"Aw, c'mon Jess, lighten up!" Felix laughed, throwing an arm around her shoulder.  
"Yeah! You going for the move to Striker?" Charlie asked, wrapping his opposite arm round her neck.  
"We just sent in our recommendations"  
"Pfft, no. No way I'm gonna get it now(!)" She muttered, rolling her eyes at her own stupidity.  
"... Aw, Jevans. What did you do this time?!" Felix asked her at exactly the same time as Charlie. She shuddered from their creepy twin-ness.  
"Well, you know how he said he wanted electronic applications? Well I kinda asked to his face and told him I was the best for the job and maybe slightly just pissed him off quite a little bit of a lot..." She explained sheepishly. The twins pulled her to a stop and stared at her.  
"You... You sassed Pentecost?!" Felix said with mock horror. Jessie let out a laugh.  
"Well, when you put it like that..." She sniggered. This was met by a onslaught of praise from the twins, and they were talking so fast to her and at each other that she began to wonder if they were even speaking English anymore. Still with their arms draped around her neck they began to talk over her head in something that sounded vaguely English, but they were speaking so quickly she couldn't make out anything they were saying! Situation normal really. She'd heard them talk like this before of course - their little twin speak language. She ducked out from under their lanky arms and started walking backwards so she could face them.  
"Guys, English. I don't speak twin-freaky-language" She said with a totally un-self conscious laugh. The twins gave her their trademark matching cheeky grins, and she rolled her eyes before she turned round and kept walking a few steps in front of them. Except, rather than seeing Cherno when she turned back round, she saw brown, and a heartbeat later connected with someone, smacking straight into their back, making them stumble forward. She had to stop meeting people like this. Grabbing her orientation, she leapt forward to help the person up.  
"Shoot, I'm sorry I didn't see you.." She began, offering a hand to the man to help him up. He looked up at her and she recognised him as one of the pilots of Striker Eureka, the younger one.  
"... Sir." She added automatically, even though she didn't even know his name. Chuck glared up at her, and pushed himself back up onto his feet, ignoring her offered hand, and looking over her and the twins, standing behind her with their arms crossed.  
"Who are you?" He asked her. She looked around uneasily before opening her mouth to reply. It wasn't her voice that he heard though, it was his father's.  
"Miss Evans!" He called, coming over to the four with Chuck's dog, Max. Jessie looked over at Herc, a flash of recognition in her eyes.  
"Sir." She acknowledged, glancing between the two.  
"Herc Hansen" he introduced himself, extending a hand in greeting. Gingerly, Jessie took the offered hand, shaking it.  
"Jessie Evans... Well, you already know who I am..." She replied, somewhat apologetically. Chuck looked between the two.  
"You've met before?" He asked, crossing his arms.  
"Well, not officially. I just happened to be there when Jessie here decided to grow a pair and ask Pentecost to his face for a promotion to Striker. Pretty damn brave thing to do." He praised her, smiling at the memory. Jessie looked slightly taken aback. She hadn't thought of it that way, and wasn't expecting to hear someone speak so... Openly about the Marshall.  
"I hadn't thought of it like that, sir..." She muttered honestly, raising a hand to cover her blushing face. Herc chuckled.  
"Yeah, basically. Still pretty impressive" he concurred. He looked over at Chuck expectantly.  
"Well, considering how rude my boy is, I suppose I'll introduce him for you." He grumbled.  
"Jessie, this is my son Chuck. We're Striker's pilots."  
"Yeah, I guessed." She said, offering a hand to Chuck. He looked at her with a puzzled look on his face.  
"Your accents..." She explained, dropping her ignored hand.  
"Ah yes. Can't help noticing yours too - what part of 'Stralia you from?" Herc replied for Chuck, who, to Jessie, was coming across as a social un-butterfly and probably the rudest person she'd ever met.  
"Uh... Newcastle, just north of Sydney, sir." She answered, surprised that Herc was making an effort to talk to someone as unimportant as her, let alone be friendly. She got the feeling that Herc was way more down to earth than his position might represent.  
"Ah, I know it well" he said with a smile, before glancing over her shoulder. Jessie turned to see that the twins had kept walking, but slowly, looking back at them. When they saw her look, they snapped their heads round and pretended not to be interested. Smiling, Jessie looked back and saw that Chuck was also smiling.  
"Looks like I'm keeping you. It was nice talking to you Miss Evans... I might have a word with Marshall abut your transfer... Took some courage to stand up to him like that" he said, winking at her. Jessie's heart leapt, and she held back a huge grin.  
"Thank you, sir... You won't regret it!" She smiled before running after the twins. Catching up with them, she jumped up onto Felix's shoulders, laughing as, instinctively, he ducked down to throw whoever it was off, but Jessie was prepared and gracefully slipped down onto the floor.  
"What was all that about?" Charlie asked, once again, plonking an arm around her neck.  
"Yeah, wasn't that Hercules and Chuck Hansen?" Felix added. Jessie was still grinning inanely.  
"Yes it was, and he's gonna recommend me to Marshall for a transfer!" She said in a singsong voice.  
"Are you serious?!" Charlie sounded shocked looking over his shoulder at the two pilots, slack jawed.  
"Man, how do we get a recommendation?!"  
"Oh please, you're gonna be pilots next Kaiju attack anyway, so shut up." Jessie retorted. The three dropped into a slightly awkward silence, all of them knew Jessie couldn't pilot a Jaeger, and they tried to refrain from even mentioning it. Charlie and Felix exchanged a glance. They new they had to distract Jessie before she started to wallow in self pity again. Felix looked down to her, elbowing her slightly in the side. She looked up at him.  
"Race you" he smiled cheekily, raising an eyebrow. Before either of the brothers had chance to reply, she giggled and raced off, running as fast as she could across the Shatterdome back to Cherno. The twins exchanged a pleasantly surprised glance before racing after her, all three laughing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Second chapter! *yay!*  
Sorry it's so short, I promise the next one will be longer!  
Enjoy :)**

Anything underlined** = Said in Russian**

* * *

"Jessie?"  
Jessie snapped to high alert as she heard her name being called from the gangway above her position on Cherno Alpha's shoulder. She relaxed, knowing she was safe, as she knew that voice well. Quickly, she jumped to her feet, reached for the underside of the gangway and pulled herself up with her strong arms. She latched on to one of the metal rods lying horizontal to the strip of metal that was suspended across Cherno's holding area, just within arms distance of the front of the Jaeger's head. She pulled herself up through the small gap between the rods making up the barrier that stopped people falling off and stood up, coming face to face with Sasha Kaidonovsky.  
"Yeah?" She asked. Sasha smiled at the young girl's familiar antics.  
"You need to stop doing that. Barriers are here for reason, you know. And is late. You should go back to quarters." she said, although she knew fine that Jessie wouldn't listen. Jessie couldn't help but smile at Sasha's ridiculously strong Russian accent, and remembered that when she first met her, she thought she would never be able to understand her. Sasha wasn't very keen on Jessie when she started work on Cherno, but in the space of about five seconds, after Sasha learnt she could speak her language fluently, Jessie suddenly became a favourite of both the Kaidonovskys. After that, she became good friends with them both, finding that they were actually cheery, amiable people under the harsh pretence they wore as an exterior. Sasha taught her a couple of combat techniques every now and then, and Alexis talked strategy mostly, as fighting him would be a bit unfair due to his 2 foot height advantage. Jessie liked them both and felt special that they had opened up to her when they were so cold to everyone else.  
"Well" Jessie replied in Russian.  
"Call me old fashioned, but it is easier to repair a Jaeger by getting a bit hands on every now and then!" She smirked.  
"Still, we don't want you getting hurt!" Sasha retorted, also smiling. Jessie just stuck her tongue out and reached down to gather her tools together before making her way back to her quarters for the night. She kept on tidying up even thought she knew Sasha was still standing behind her. Jessie sighed and stood up.  
"Anything I can do for you, Mrs Kaidonovsky?" She asked jokingly with a small bow. Sasha looked her in the eyes, making Jessie feel suddenly very nervous. She looked very serious.  
"Hansen the Elder came and spoke to me earlier. He wanted to know about you and your work on Cherno. When I asked why, he told me of you wanting to work on Striker..." She began, looking at Jessie with a puzzled expression. Jessie smiled to herself, glad that Herc had been serious about the recommendation and proud that people were acknowledging her work.  
"Why?" Sasha asked. Jessie paused for a moment, knowing she was going to have to be careful about what to say as not to hurt Sasha's feelings. Cherno was the world to her and Alexis.  
"Well, I might not, but I have asked... not because I don't like working here on Cherno, because I do, but... but no one knows when a Jaeger will be taken out by the next Kaiju that decides to show its big ugly face around here, and... well... Striker is the only Mark 5. Not many people, especially cadets, can say they worked with her, and considering she could go down with the next mission... I kinda wanted to work with her before she goes down. So I can say that I was one of the fortunate few who did, I guess." She answered completely honestly, before going back to her tool box, feeling slightly embarrassed.  
"Also, it would look pretty good on my résumé! And the Hansens seem okay. I could get used to them." She added.  
"Jessie, Hansen the Younger is a fool."  
Jessie let out a disgusting piggy snort at this comment and stuffed her face into her hands to cover her laughter. She heard Sasha's chuckle behind her.  
"It's true! Complete cretin. Well, I hope you get it Jessie. You deserve it." She heard Sasha say over her shoulder, before she heard the clomping of her boots walking away down the metal gang walk. Jessie sat back on her haunches her smile dying down, hoping, and praying that Marshall would let her. Sighing in frustration, she picked up her drill, and shoved some screws in the pocket of her dirty beige combats before hoisting herself up to sit on the side of the walkway. She could see all the Jaegers from up here, from her strategically placed seat just above Cherno's shoulder. She squinted for signs of life in the dimly lit Dome, but saw nothing in the one hour changeover period before the night shift came on. If anyone saw her now she'd definitely get into trouble for being here after hours. Shrugging it off and thinking she was alone, she jumped back down onto Cherno's shoulder before walking up the top of the chest plate and dumping her equipment. She sidled along the thick armour protecting the chin of the Jaeger until she was standing directly in the middle of Cherno's neck. With one last check to see that no one was looking, she did an elegant backward walkover along the narrow end of the chest armour, fully aware that with one misjudged piece of footing she could quite easily slip and fall 80 metres or so to the floor. She felt herself do it perfectly, and grinned at her confidence, knowing she wasn't going to fall. She continued to practice some and flips and moves, traversing the robot, and allowed her mind to drift back to her parents. She only really thought of them around the Jaegers, them both being pilots themselves before they were killed in one of the first Kaiju attacks on Sydney. She remembered her first time in a Jaeger, when she was only 7. She thought she was so clever slipping away from her parents whilst they were talking to someone. She remembered accidentally activating the Drift by herself, and remembered the feel of the insane surge of power through her tiny body.  
She landed a cartwheel, her foot slipping slightly off the edge. She took in a deep shaky breath to focus herself before continuing.  
She didn't suffer any ill effects though, only a slight headache, but that went away when she disconnected herself. At the time, she didn't realise how impossible that seemed. When her parents found her they couldn't believe it. They were angry with her, and yelled at her to never do it again, but she knew that they were only cross because they were worried.  
"_Jessie, don't ever do that again. Do you understand me?" Daddy asked me crouching down to my level and looking me squarely in the eyes. I nodded my head, ashamed.  
"C'mere, princess. Your mum and I only get cross because we love you and want you to say safe, okay?" He told me, reaching forward and pulling me into a big hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him back.  
"You know, princess, you're going to make a brilliant pilot one day" he whispered in my ear. I pulled away from him.  
"Really? Do you really think so Daddy?" I asked excitedly. He smiled.  
"I sure do. But until then, keep away from the Jaegers okay?" He asked, holding out his hand for me to hold it. I gladly latched on, skipping along whilst we walked._  
She didn't remember much else about that time. Everything seemed hazy. She more clearly remembered the years following that, when her mum took charge of training her. She remembered the endless hours learning and practicing new skills with her mum in the gym at the Sydney Shatterdome - somewhat more relaxed than this one. She also remembered when she got a full kill rate on her first simulator... The same day her parents were called out and never came back.  
Her foot slipped again.  
She remembered the Marshall back at Sydney coming to tell her about her parents. She remembered not understanding that they were never going to come back. She stayed with Cam for a few days until someone in her family could come and get her, and she couldn't understand why her mum and dad aren't coming back. She remembered asking Cam where they were, and after a few weeks it really sunk in. After that, she lost her childhood. She didn't laugh and play anymore. She became so serious, so focused on training. Cam felt so sorry for her, he had known and been a good friend to her parents. So when none of Jessie's relatives could be contacted, he agreed to take her in, continue her training and prep her for being a pilot. She was brilliant - had a complete understanding of Jaeger technology, had excellent moves and would train tirelessly to perfect them. She must've broken every single bone in her body striving to be the best she could be. At least, until the day they found out she wasn't Drift compatible. Cam said that it was because of the Drift when she was 7, and that it had messed up something in her neural connectors. She was 14. She still remembered that as the worst day if her life. She had practically promised her parents to be the best pilot she could, and now... Now she couldn't. She remembered so clearly her upset, her anger when she decided to join her parents. She remembered going to the cabinet in the bathroom where Cam kept the medicine. She remembered taking every single pill in the pack.  
"Hey!"  
She remembered lying down on her bed, and waiting to sleep.  
"Hey!"  
She knew she was never going to wake up.  
"Jessie!"  
Her foot slipped as she landed, all the way off this time. Her other leg crumpled as she slipped sideways off the armour of Cherno's neck. She had been so caught up in her memories, that for a second she completely forgot where she was, and that there was nothing stopping her should she falter. She hadn't noticed her moves getting more and more careless. Her heart started racing as she lurched off the Jaeger, catching a quick glimpse of the 260 foot gap between her and the ground, with nothing to break her fall. Quick as a flash she flung out an arm and grabbed for the ledge above her head. She started to panic as she realised she was already too far away, and her fingers only grazed the edge of it when she grabbed at it. In the same heartbeat, she felt a pair of strong hands clamp around her forearm, pulling her up to the ledge and breaking her fall. Instinctively, she swung her other hand up to grab her saviour. Glancing around, she looked around to see that she'd slipped off the armour plating, but somehow and with the help of the person tightly gripping her forearms, she'd managed to grab onto the side of the gangway just in time before she fell. She was hanging there, one hand latched onto the metal walk way, one clinging to the forearms of the person leaning over the barrier. The big hands wrapped tightly around her arm, making sure she didn't fall. She looked up, squinting into the light, unable to see who it was.  
"You gonna hang there all night?" Asked a gruff, Australian voice. Herc. Immediately, Jessie swung her other hand up, and began to swing her legs, giving her the momentum to get over the barrier. The hands abruptly let her go, seeing how she was perfectly capable of getting herself out of this, as she swung her legs round once more, clambered up and dropped off the other side and onto the gangway. She was about to apologise, when she registered that it wasn't Herc that was standing in front of her, but Chuck. She stood staring for a second before apologising anyway.  
"I'm sorry, I was just..."  
"Yeah, I saw what you were doing." He interrupted her, moving beside her too look over the barrier. Jessie just stood there, not quite believing how rude he was. She really, really didn't like this guy.  
"Why are you here so late?" He asked, to her surprise. Jessie turned round and leaned on the barrier beside him, looking down at her tools, still on Cherno's shoulder where she left them. Before she had chance to reply, he spoke again.  
"You shouldn't be here. and you especially shouldn't be... playing on the Jaegers!" he said, his voice rising. Jessie couldn't even be bothered with him anymore. She was just cross with herself that she had been so stupid as to let someone catch her, but considering that person was Chuck, and because he was such a dick, he was obviously going to report her, and she was obviously going to get in serious shit. She readied herself for the lecture that was imminent. He was just looking at her expectantly as if waiting for her to explain herself.  
"Just finishing some last minute repairs." She answered bluntly, before hoisting herself up onto the barrier again. She was about to jump down when she felt Chuck's arm on her shoulder. She turned to look at him.  
"Look you shouldn't be here, you're too young and there isn't a supervisor. And you really should be doing that gym stuff in the gym not on the Jaeger. You could fall again." He cautioned with a frown. Jessie stared at him. She had no idea what she was supposed to think of him. One minute he is a total rude-as pain in the backside, the next he's actually something that resembled a decent human being. Jessie was tempted to challenge his sudden apparent change of heart but decided against it. She didn't want to put him off being nice again.  
"Yeah well... Someone has to do it." Was all she said before she detached herself from Chuck and jumped down onto the shoulder of the Jaeger.  
"Just to clarify...you're not going to tell anyone are you?" She called up nervously, just in case. Chuck looked down on her, contemplating her question.  
"No, so long as you don't try to do anything where you might hurt yourself." he answered after a moment. Jessie must've looked totally shocked because he went on to explain.  
"My dad seems to trust you, and he's normally a pretty good character judge, so..." He trailed off lamely. Jessie nodded slightly, totally bemused at what she was hearing. She turned and made a big show of gathering her tools, hoping that he'd take the hint and go away, which mercifully, he did. When she could no longer hear his footsteps, she sat down on Cherno's shoulder, gazing out over the rest of the Shatterdome, and the four other beautiful machines with her wondering what the hell just happened. Why did Chuck Hansen care? He seemed like a total asshole earlier... And what was he doing here anyway?! Striker isn't stationed next to Cherno, so there was no reason why he should be here. And she could've sworn he had some kind of bipolar thing going on... Jessie sighed in frustration.  
"It's not fair you know?" She whispered to Cherno.  
"People like Chuck Hansen, who are so up themselves they can see out their mouths, get to pilot you guys and don't seem to appreciate it. Then there's me, me who would give my soul to be Drift compatible, me who wants nothing else in the damn world but to pilot you... Me who gets stuck with nothing" she gave a sad sigh and closed her eyes, resting her head on the Jaeger. She allowed her thoughts to wander as she thought of her parents, Cam, the twins she adored, Jaegers, and oddly enough, a certain fellow Aussie... She didn't have enough strength to wonder why, before sleep took over her, and she drifted off, knowing that she could only pilot in her dreams.


	3. Chapter 3

**Annnnnnd here's Chapter 3!**

**Sorry it's a bit late, been really busy! :/ **

**Hope you enjoy! **

**If you do, go ahead and leave me a little review, just so I can get an idea of how many people are actually reading this :P **

**Thank you all so much! 3**

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Something heavy landed on Jessie's head, making her jolt awake and nearly fall from her precariously placed perch on the shoulder of Cherno Alpha. She looked down into her lap, where there now lay a strawberry yogurt. A soft clang on the metal beside her indicated the arrival of a plastic spoon. She reached over and picked it up, looking around the now bustling Shatterdome. She must've been asleep up there all night. She looked up in the direction of the yogurt pot's trajectory and was unsurprised to be greeted by a pair of identical beaming faces. She smiled back.

"Get up here, try not to let people see you and bring that with you. We're gonna miss breakfast if you don't hurry!" Charlie said leaning over the barrier. Jessie raised her yogurt in a lazy toast before jumping up and cautiously clambering back over the barrier. The Shatterdome was bustling with its normal morning buzz and Jessie loved it. She smirked to herself as she greeted the twins.  
"Did you sleep there all night?" Felix asked her, eyebrows raised.  
"Apparently... I don't know how I slept through the night shift!" Jessie muttered in reply.  
"Thanks for waking me up though!"  
"No problem. We knew you'd be here when we couldn't find you in your room. You need to be careful Jess. Firstly, Academy cadets aren't allowed to be here without supervisors, so it's a good thing whoever was covering the night shift didn't notice you." Charlie began as the three made their way along the gangway.  
"Because the last thing you need is for more attention to be drawn to yourself. To be honest it's a miracle no ones noticed that you're underage yet." Felix added, his voice dropping to a murmur. Jessie batted him away with her hand, making him shut up.  
"We're serious Jess. You get found out, you get booted out. Along with Cam probably." Charlie said seriously.  
"Guys, I know!" Jessie assured them. Charlie shook his head.  
"I don't think you do. Cam is responsible for you now, so anything you get yourself into is dragging him with you. He could lose his whole life because of you!" He replied. Jessie stared at him in shock, not believing what she was hearing.  
"Charlie..!"  
"If you keep doing dumb stuff like that you're gonna get found out eventually, and possibly court marshalled or something."  
"Woah. Hang on. Just because I'm too young doesn't mean I'm not way more capable than some of the poor excuses for cadets around here." She pointed out.  
"Yeah well unfortunately, people won't care what your view is Jess. You're a number to them, and if they realise that that number is too small, you're screwed." Felix retorted with Charlie nodding on his other side.  
"Well hey, it hasn't been a problem before and look, I'm still here. So if I keep doing what I'm doing then all shall be good!" She replied, trying to lighten the mood. Felix just shook his head.  
"Well great plan, but this re-assignment could change everything, you know." He said, seriously. Jessie looked between the two brothers, suddenly worried by the serious looks on their normally cheery faces. It bothered her to see them so concerned.  
"I can't believe you're saying this to me!" She pushed away from them, hurt.  
"All we're saying is just be cautious! Wouldn't want to loose our Jevans would we?" Charlie said, seeing the look of worry on Jessie's face.  
"Yeah Jess, you're the best! I need you to help keep Charlie in line!" Felix added, pulling Jessie into a side hug and earning a slap on the arm from his brother.  
"You guys are the best too! Don't know what I'd do without you!" She giggled. Her comment was met by a series of "aww"'s and then a couple of disgusting vomiting noises from Charlie.  
"Oh stop, for god's sake. 21 and you're still acting like children!" Jessie muttered, rolling her eyes as all three walked into the canteen. As they reached the bottom of the metal stairs that led up to the serving area, both twins stepped to either side of it.  
"After you, milady!" They both said together. Jessie gave an over exaggerated courtesy and, delicately holding her imaginary dress out to the side, made her way up the metal stairs, to be followed by her two "footmen". Reaching the top, the trio grabbed a tray and a plate each and waited patiently as the ancient old dinner ladies served them things that more closely resembled slop than breakfast. Nose turned up at the slimy noodle type thing laddered across his plate, Felix turned to Jessie.  
"Is this edible? Since when did we eat worms for breakfast?" He said, his voice dripping with disdain.  
"Don't be rude! I'm sure people spent a long time over this!" Jessie replied, trying as hard as she could to look serious, but between glancing at the rather unappetising presentation of the food and Felix's greying face at the prospect of having to eat it, she couldn't resist poking one last bit of fun at him.  
"Or they could've dug them up a few hours ago." She said with an evil wink.  
"This is Hong Kong stuff. It's maybe a bit more outlandish than you're used to but it's Chinese. And Chinese food always tastes great, no matter what it is!" She picked up some brown blob off her plate and popped it in her mouth with a smile to prove her point. Charlie walked past Felix, murmuring something about him should having have ordered the Continental breakfast instead. Jessie scowled when she saw the doubtful look of Felix's face.  
"Fine, have this. Where did you even get it from?" She said, passing him her yogurt. His face brightened a little at the thought of eating something with a name he could spell in English, but still followed the others down the metal stairs at the other side of the platform and down to the canteen with a look of mild disgust on his face.  
"It's really busy... Where do you wanna sit?" Charlie asked over his shoulder, looking around the crowded room. Jessie shrugged and looked around. They were closer to the "important people" side of the room, then in the middle were the engineers and LOCCENT workers, and the cadets, rabble and everyone else got the far end. She could see three or four long tables at the end of the room crammed with other cadets, who had piled themselves on to the tiny tables so tightly as to not over flow and have to sit with people they didn't know.  
"We could ditch out trays and go back to my room? Or out into the Shatterdome somewhere?" Jessie suggested lamely.  
"You really do have a death wish don't you?" Felix muttered. Jessie turned to face him.  
"Fine, so lets all sit here on the floor, share food and talk about our feelings like hippies." She said sarcastically. Felix saw her eyes flicker upwards, behind him, before pulling him out of the way of the stairs to let some people past.  
"Ah! Miss Evans. Morning." Said a voice Felix didn't recognise. Jessie smiled at the voice.  
"Good morning, Mr Hansen" Jessie replied, stepping to the side to let him get pass. Herc smiled as he came down to stand beside Jessie.  
"Excited about the transfer?" He asked. Jessie nodded her head.  
"Yes sir, very." She admitted. Herc smiled and passed his gaze over Felix and Charlie.  
"I recognise you two - you're the Leigh twins?" He asked. The twins' faces lit up.  
"Yes, sir, I'm Charlie, this is my brother, Felix." Charlie said, introducing them both. Herc nodded, smiling.  
"You also applied for the re-assignment didn't you?"  
"We did, sir."  
"Huh...Well... seeing as there's nowhere else, would you and Miss Evans care to join me?" He asked, looking round the crowded room.  
"Thats very kind, but we don't want to intrude..." Jessie stopped when Herc shook his head.  
"You wont, don't worry. Besides, the think the others would like to meet you." He insisted. The twins nodded, completely star struck. They played it so cool when they ever spoke about other pilots or whatever, but when it actually came to speaking to one, it was more a case of Disney crazed toddler meets Mickey Mouse. Seeing how the twins' jaws were practically touching the ground Jessie spoke for them.  
"Sure Mr Hansen, we'd love to." She said with a small sideways glance at the awestruck pair. Herc smiled and shook his head before leading the three over to the distinctly more deserted tables away from the rabble of the cadets.  
"Why is he actually bothering to even talk to us?" Felix hissed in Jessie's ear.  
"Dunno. I think it's because I'm Australian or something." She shrugged.  
"Yeah, or something. He knows who we are! That's awesome..." Charlie piped in. Jessie couldn't believe how childish they were being.  
"Will you please get a grip. He's only human, and you both sound like crazed teenage girls." Jessie ordered the twins in a hushed voice. Neither replied, and kept following Herc like puppies.  
"Hello? Jess to twins, respond please?" She said, glancing between the two. They were still staring after Herc with wide eyes.  
"Unbelievable..." Jessie muttered, sighing.  
"Guys... We're gonna get to actually eat with all the other pilots!" Felix gasped as he saw where Herc had sat down. Jessie looked up to see that he had sat down between the Wei Tans and... Chuck. Oh joy. After a brief collaboration with the people immediately around him, he motioned for them to come and sit down. Jessie huffed as the twins elbowed each other, not quite believing it.  
"Guys, lets try to be cool about this, hmm?" She said as she sidled past them and made her way down the aisle to sit opposite Herc. It was only as she plonked down her tray that she realised she'd put it down beside Raleigh Becket, and all thought of cool went out the window. He looked up at her with his bright blue eyes. Jessie wavered between sitting down, asking if anyone was sat there and apologising for her existence in the company of a god.  
"Ah Jessie, I'm sure you've heard of Raleigh Becket?" Herc interjected, breaking the awkwardness a bit. Jessie nodded, sticking out her hand to introduce herself.  
"Who hasn't? Jessie Evans. Pleasure to meet you" She said, greeting Raleigh. Everyone knew of the unfortunate story of Raleigh and Yancy Becket, the brothers from Alaska, the story that ended up making Raleigh one of the only pilots every to command a Jaeger solo. However, despite his tragic past, he still maintained an absolutely beautiful exterior. He smiled, probably causing some girl somewhere to faint, and shook her hand.  
"Pleasure is all mine, Miss Evans." he replied, and somewhere in the back of Jessie's mind, a little voice told her never to wash that hand ever again. She felt blood rushing to her cheeks. She ignored the voice and smiled back, sliding down onto the bench beside who was possibly the most famous Jaeger pilot to date, and probably one of the most gorgeous. She watched Charlie and Felix flit around unsurely on the opposite side of the table, being distinctly not cool.  
"Will you sit?!" Jessie asked. Immediately they put their trays down beside Chuck and sat down somewhat hesitantly. Jessie rolled her eyes. Everyone around was giving them weird looks.  
"You'll have to excuse the twins. I don't let them out very much and they're still attempting to mimic human behaviour in a pathetic attempt to blend in." She muttered, directing the last bit towards them, picking up her chopsticks and beginning to eat. She got a few laughs from Raleigh and Herc, and to her surprise, she even managed to squeeze a smile out of Chuck. The twins shot Jessie two equally pained looks before beginning to eat too.  
"So, what brings you here?" Raleigh asked after a few moments.  
"We're engineering cadets from the Academy - we're here on experience." Jessie explained, pointing her chopsticks to include the twins. Raleigh nodded.  
"I see. So you're 22, 23?" He said. Jessie's heart began to pound, just like every time it did when she lied about her age.  
"I'm 20, and those two are 21." She replied. Raleigh's eyes widened slightly.  
"Wow... that young, huh?" He remarked.  
"They're signing up right of high school these days." Herc put in.  
"What made you sign up?" Chuck interrupted. So far he hadn't said anything, or didn't seem to have even noticed Jessie was there at all. Bit rude, considering the events of the night before. Jessie would've thought he had the decency to at least say hi. Alas no, he'd just sat there, looking at her and frowning, as if he was studying her. Jessie swallowed and put down her chopsticks, not breaking eye contact with him as she answered him. She didn't see any point in lying to any of them about her mum and dad, as they could just look it up on her file if they wanted to. She was sure that they had clearance to do that kind of thing. At least that part of her Academy profile was true.  
"My parents, Maria and Eric Evans, were pilots. They were killed by Kaiju."  
She noticed Chuck's eyes widen and he could tell he was meaning to apologise for bringing it up, but he didn't say anything. He just nodded, looked down and poked at the food on his plate. She looked away from him and saw that practically everyone on the table was staring at her. She must've said it louder than she thought. She looked down, embarrassed, and suddenly became very interested in her plate.  
"I'm sorry to hear that." Said Raleigh from beside her.  
"It's fine, you didn't know." Jessie shrugged the uncomfortable subject off.  
"It was a long time ago. I don't really remember them anyway."  
After that, the table slipped into a bit of an awkward silence. No one knew what to say to each other. Jessie could tell there were glances being exchanged over her head but she didn't care. She'd gotten used to that by now. She was all prepared to get up and leave as to remove the source of her, and everyone else's uneasiness from the scene, when got the feeling that someone was watching her. She looked up, only to be met by Herc's blue eyes boring into hers. He was frowning at her, concentrating. Jessie groaned inwardly and wondered wether this was some new kind of fad she'd missed out on - staring suspiciously at people for no good reason. She cocked her head slightly and raised one eyebrow, as if to ask what was wrong.  
"They were good people. Never met them myself, but they were sort of super stars back in Sydney. You couldn't find a braver pair of pilots if you tried." He said, solemnly. Jessie totally agreed. Her parents were the bravest people she ever knew, to have a child and still go out and fight for the sake of the world. Some people would say they didn't care about her, and that they were stupid and selfish, but Jessie couldn't disagree more. They did what they did because they loved her and wanted her to be safe. There was a fine line between stupidity and bravery, she knew that. But it was one her parents never crossed.  
"So I take it you're want to follow in their footsteps?" Herc asked.  
"You want to be a pilot?"  
Charlie choked on what he was eating on hearing this. He looked across at Jessie as if to challenge her as to how she was going to explain that to them. Jessie looked around uneasily.  
"Erm... no, I'm... I'm more interested in the engineering route." She lied refusing to look anyone in the eye. She could again sense the looks of doubt and confusion being passed from person to person, and was just grateful that they didn't pry any deeper. As far as she knew, only Cam and the twins knew she couldn't Drift, and she'd prefer it to stay that way.  
"Those two do though." She said, indicating to Charlie and Felix, hoping to detract the attention from herself. Thankfully, Herc got the message she didn't want to talk about piloting and started to quiz the twins instead.  
"Yes, I've heard about you two. 51 out of 51 on your last simulator. That's pretty impressive." He praised the twins. If Jessie didn't know better she could've sworn Felix blushed. Thankfully, however, Charlie had always been slightly more down to earth. He at least managed to squeak out a thank you.  
"So did you join up because of family or..." Raleigh asked, not quite sure what to say, and not wanting to bring something else up that might hit any more nerves.  
"Sort of. Mum and Dad were involved in tech development, and our older brother Casper went down that path as well. We joined because we wanted to be pilots I guess. Nothing more worthwhile than saving the world every now and then." He joked.  
"I reckon we started a trend joining up. Our baby sister Alicia, she's 17, signed up a few months back, due to start in September this year." Felix added. Jessie smiled. She adored Alicia. The two girls were the best of friends. They always spoke on the phone, or texted each other, and whenever Alicia came to visit her brothers, she would stay with Jessie. Alicia was so much like her brothers it was insane. They all had exactly the same sense of humour, quick wit and sharp tongue. It was great to see them all together, and to see how much the twins loved and cared for their younger sister, and visa versa. Casper on the other hand, was the much more serious sibling, and Jessie had only met him once. However, being a Leigh, he was still fully stocked in the charm and charisma department, just like the rest of his family. She was meaning to ask the twins when Alicia was meant to come to visit actually, even though knowing her she'd just turn up whenever she felt like it. She was a bit of a rogue cannon.  
Jessie felt someone kick her under the table. She looked up to realise that Charlie had been trying to talk to her, and once again, everyone was looking at her.  
"Sorry, what?" She asked, annoyed at blanking out like that.  
"Cam." Charlie said.  
"What?" Jessie looked behind her to see Cam standing behind some cadets, at the bottom of the stairs, looking as impatient as ever and beckoning to her.  
"Oh! Excuse me." She exclaimed, standing up and excusing herself. She half skipped half walked down the aisle and through the small crowd to meet Cam. She emerged on the other side to come face to face with him.  
"Yeah?"  
"Why are you and the Devil Twins sat there?" He asked.  
"Well good morning to you too." Jessie replied, ignoring his question but smiling slightly at Cam's nickname for Charlie and Felix.  
"Jess!"  
"Herc... Mr Hansen asked us to join him for breakfast." Jessie said, holding her hands up in a placating gesture.  
"Do you realise what time it is?"  
"Why are you always so grumpy?! Actually, strike that, when was the last time you were in a good mood?!"  
"I am not grumpy."  
"Pfft, sure."  
"I am just stressed."  
"Uh huh, and when was the last time you were un-stressed?" Jessie challenged, her hands on her hips. The longer Cam looked at the indignant stare with the half smile on her face the harder it was to bite back a smile.  
"Don't smile, Cam. Whatever you do. If by some miracle the wind changes, your face might even stay like that." Jessie said, grinning. Cam sighed and shook his head, not bothering to hold back the smile pulling on his face. Jessie gave a small exclamation of triumph.  
"See? Your face does remember how to smile!" She teased, laughing.  
"You should try that more often. Way less face muscles than scowling." Cam just grumbled in response.  
"So come on then. You didn't make me come over here purely to bring some joy into your life, even though I can't tell you how much it pleases me. What's up?" She asked, her smile dying down.  
"I just wanted to wish you luck today, Jess." Cam replied.  
"Come again?"  
"You know... With the transfer?" He said, winking.  
"... Oh my god, you already know who got it!" Jessie practically shouted, aghast. Cam just smiled, turned and began to walk away.  
"Wait wait wait, you can't just not tell me if I got it or not!" Jessie protested, grabbing onto his arm and making him face her.  
"I'll tell you the names of the transfers if you tell me where you were last night." He retorted, before cockily striding off out of the canteen. Jessie stood for a moment, trying to process what he'd just said. Then it occurred to her that he must've gone looking for her for some reason last night, only to not find her in her room... as she had been asleep in the Shatterdome. And of course, Cam being Cam had assumed the worst, and the completely untrue. She opened her mouth to shout after him, but decided he was already too far gone and that yelling to the entire canteen that she wasn't sleeping with anyone would be way to embarrassing. That would probably classify as curl up and die in a hole embarrassing. Blushing furiously at what would be thoughts may be running through Cam's head, she sheepishly returned to her seat, very much aware of her beetroot coloured face. She paused before she sat back down, trying to think of an excuse for the flurry of questions she knew would be asked about why her face was the same colour as the strawberry on the lid of Felix's yogurt. Sure enough she was met by two pairs of particularly questioning eyes as she sat back down beside Raleigh.  
"What was that about?" Charlie asked, pretending not to be interested.  
"Cam wants us to go get ready - he doesn't want us to be late for the announcement." Jessie improvised, surprised to hear how convincing she sounded.  
"Now?"  
Jessie nodded.  
"Thanks for this, Mr Hansen. It was fun." Jessie said graciously as she and the twins stood up to leave. Herc gave her a nod in reply.  
"It was nice to meet you, Mr Becket." She added turning to Raleigh. In reply, he flashed her another one of his magnificent smiles. Jessie forced herself to look away before she fell in love with his gorgeousness and look back over to the twins, who were shaking hands with Herc. Her eyes rested on Chuck. He smiled as they made eye contact, and, purely out of courtesy, Jessie smiled back. Maybe he was okay after all. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she highly doubted it. Next time he saw her he'd probably make some snide comment or something. Still, she was grateful to him for not telling on her last night. She looked away, bothered that she couldn't decide. With one final thank you, she walked away from the table and met the twins at the end of the isle. Felix was grinning like an idiot.  
"That. Was awesome." He said, practically giddy with excitement.  
"So what did Cam really want?" Charlie asked Jessie, ignoring his brother.  
"Well, I think he wanted to know who I was sleeping with." She replied casually, putting her tray away.  
"Don't tell me. Chuck?" She heard Charlie ask over her shoulder, seemingly unfazed. Jessie spun round to face him.  
"Oh my god no! That is just... no, that's disgusting, ew. I can't believe you said that!" Jessie replied, wringing her hands and pulling a face.  
"And anyway he doesn't even like me!" She felt like she had to add. Why had she said that?  
"Bullshit." Felix said, coming up behind her from dumping his uneaten food.  
"I beg your pardon?!"  
"Jess, he was staring at you the whole time. Like, _staring_ staring." Felix told her, crossing his arms. Jessie spluttered, thinking of what to say.  
"Why?!" Was all she could come up with. The twins looked at each other before looking her up and down, both with one eyebrow raised. Jessie felt herself blush and self consciously crossed her arms over her chest.  
"Shut up and come on. We're going to be late." She muttered, heading for the door out of the canteen.  
"We didn't say anything!" The twins said after her. She could hear that they were smiling. She had to admit, being one of the only females in the Shatterdome had its perks, meaning she normally got what she wanted, but then again, you had to face the problem of creepy middle aged dudes staring every time you walked past. Chuck staring at her on the other hand was just... odd. But to Jessie's surprise, she didn't think it was creepy odd, just a bit unusual. It ticked her off that she still didn't know what to think about him. At the moment, he was being okay... at least, he hadn't done anything to make her think otherwise, but then again he probably would next time they spoke. But what if he didn't? Well, if he didn't, Jessie may possibly get to actually like him.  
Possibly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4!**

**Many apologies for the lateness of this, but I've been up doing the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and have been super busy :/**

**Also, sorry in advance for the amount of dribble in this chapter, I just wanted to get it out, because if all goes well I am planning a little something special and way more exciting in the next one, I PROMISE! ;)**

**Thankyou all for reading and reviewing and following and favouriting, I mean, you guys are the ****best**** and it means a lot! :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Tips xxxx**

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Jessie sighed as she kicked off her boots, stripped off her dirty clothes and dumped them on the floor in her room. She had agreed to meet the twins back in the Shatterdome in 10 minutes, and seriously needed to change and touch herself up a bit before starting her shift at 7. She lobbed her greasy combats and dirty T-shirt onto her unused bed, and went to her sink to wash. As soon as she saw herself in her mirror, she could've died of embarrassment from the idea that people had actually seen her look so awful. She honestly looked dead. Whatever makeup she had on was now smudged in a thick black line underneath her eyes, and her usually glowing skin was pale and blotchy. Her hair had gone frizzy from not being brushed and slept on awkwardly, and now made it look like it was more of a bob than just below her shoulders. She realised why Chuck had been staring at her. It wasn't because of whatever crude reason the twins had been hinting at, but purely because she looked like she'd just been pulled through a hedge backwards. Growling, she yanked on the tap and splashed cold water all over her face, gently rubbing away at her panda eyes with a section of cotton wool she kept on her small shelf. Pulling a towel off the rail beside her sink, she gently patted her face dry, before surveying her reflection. With her now fresher looking face and frizzy hair, she realised how much she looked just like her mum. She walked back across her room over to her bed, her bare feet slapping on the metal floor. She sat down on her bed and stared up at her wall. On her wall were all of her memories. She had hundreds of pictures of various people and times in her life, spreading like ivy across her wall and trickling onto the next one and the ceiling. The ones towards the middle of the wall were all of her and her parents, where her collection had started when she moved here. There was one she loved in particular. It was taken at her 6th birthday party, and was a close up of her and her parents faces. Her mum was on the right, her elegant, slender, youthful face betraying her real age. Her cornflower blue eyes matched Jessie's, and they were beautiful, gleaming orbs among her pretty features - her dainty nose and perfect smile. Her curly, almost black Afro-like shoulder length hair was looking perfect with not a single hair out of place as usual, despite the challenge it was for her to host and entertain about 20 six year olds. She really was a stunner, and even though Jessie was bound to be biased, everyone who knew her mum, agreed. On Jessie's other side, was her dad. Her dad was just as wonderful. His blue eyes, also his best feature, sat in the middle of his tanned, chiseled face. His smile was also perfect, his nose slightly larger than average, but not so much that it was disproportionate to his face. His sandy coloured hair was cut reasonably short, and bled down the sides of his face into the slight stubble that he always wore. Jessie could remember when she was little, and he would come to kiss her. She was giggle and squirm away from his scratchy chin, and he would chase her around her garden with the threat of a tickle. Now she only had photos to keep those memories alive. In the middle of the photo was Jessie, her beaming, upturned face pressed between her parents'. Her ridiculously long brown hair was stuck to her glowing cheeks, and was pinned down underneath a crown with "birthday princess" inscribed on it in hot pink letters. Her eyes were nearly pinched shut as she was smiling so widely, showing off the gaps in her mouth. She always laughed at how funny she looked. Her two front teeth were just beginning to grow back in, two tiny white stumps in her pink gums. All of her other teeth were still baby ones, tiny little pearls in her massive, open face. It was fat and babyish, and it was no where near as pretty as her parents', but she made up for it with sheer enthusiasm in the picture. Around that beautiful moment, captured in one picture, were all the others. Ones from when she was a baby, ones from when she moved to the Shatterdome, and ones when she was older, sat with Cam, holding her letter of acceptance to the academy. Radiating further and further out as her collection grew over the years and she got progressively older, there were more and more photos of her and her friends. There was a whole segment of photographs from the twins 21st birthday party. Jessie got up and walked over to her wall so she could see them better, smiling. One of her other favourites was one of her, the twins, and Alicia, but she couldn't for the life of her remember who took the photo. Jessie had gone over to the twins' house and they'd had a massive party. They'd all got completely drunk, and if she was entirely honest with herself, Jessie couldn't remember much after midnight. This particular photo had been taken at about half 1 in the morning, and consisted of one of the twins giving the other one a piggy back - Jessie couldn't tell them apart. There had been a small accident involving them both falling into the swimming pool, and they were absolutely drenched, making it impossible for Jessie to tell who was who by hair colour, which she normally did. All four were standing under the veranda with the night lights, as well as the white flash from the camera, illuminating the outrageous scene. The twin on top of the piggy back was holding a bottle of beer, raising it to the heavens and looking up, in the middle of yelling something. The twin on the bottom was looking at the camera, and judging by his face, he must've been screaming for some reason. Alicia had one arm wrapped around one of her brother's neck and the other wrapped around Jessie's neck. Jessie remembered that at some point in the evening, to the hilarity of everyone else, the front of Alicia's dress had torn somehow, so that it was only being held up by one shoulder and exposing her bra and half of her stomach. As it was quite a loose fitting dress, in the picture she was looking and laughing at Jessie with the torn shoulder of her dress tucked into her bra to stop it from falling down. Jessie herself was on the end. She was holding a full shot glass in one hand and was whooping, whilst her other arm was stuck up behind her in the air. It was clear to see that they were all completely sloshed. Jessie smiled at the memory. It was a really fun night, but the hangovers the next morning really made Jessie wonder if it had been worth it or not. Also dotted amongst the photos, she had certificates from her old school, academy achievements, letters from Alicia, a few random cuttings out from magazines, and tons of her old drawings. She preferred to keep things like this, where she could see them and not forget any of them, and she was always on the hunt for more pictures to add. She sighed, making a mental note to come back for a proper look after her shift, as she knew she had to hurry now. She skipped in her underwear back over her floor to her wardrobe, pulling out a pair of navy PPDC sweatpants and a white tank top. She went back to her sink, grabbing her hairbrush from the small ledge above it and setting to work on her matted hair. As she stood there, tugging at it, she started to think and get excited about the transfer. Cam had been in what had vaguely resembled a good mood earlier and had been teasing her about it, so that had to mean she'd got it. Her and the twins. He wouldn't give her false hope like that, especially if he knew that it was something so important to her. As the bubbling feeling grew in her stomach, she forced it back down, not wanting to get her hopes too high. Maybe he was just being supportive and wishing her luck. Maybe he didn't know but was being optimistic as he wouldn't want her to think that he didn't support her. She shoved all thoughts of that away as she managed to get the last tug out of her hair. It was much more sleek now with a slight shine to it making it look glossy and healthy. Jessie grumbled as she looked at herself in the mirror. It sucked that her parents were so gorgeous and she was so plain. All she saw were two eyes, a nose, a mouth and some hair. Nothing exciting or pretty. She glared at herself before swinging her hair up into a high ponytail, keeping it out of her face so it wouldn't get in her way during work. She'd cut most of it off specifically for that reason actually. It was much more practical. She unzipped her makeup bag and slapped on a few coats of mascara and some blush, making her look much more awake and actually alive. Not bothering to tidy up after herself, as she was already late, she yanked on her boots, tucking her sweatpants into them and with one final peek at herself in her mirror she banged out of her room and jogged to the Shatterdome.

As Jessie walked through the bulkhead door into the Shatterdome, she was immediately lost in the swarm of people bustling around. Most of the people actually working in there were tall, beefy chunks of men and she looked quite out of place when she was around them, being so much smaller and dainty. She slipped through the crowd, only coming up to mid chest point on most of the massive Hercules type figures around her, trying to find the twins. She had to rely on using her ears to hear them talking rather than actually picking them out because she couldn't see anything anyway. Eventually, after what seemed like hours of trying to squirm through the crowd of large, sweaty men without touching them, she heard some familiar voices to her right.  
"Hello ladies." Jessie greeted the twins, sliding in between them and smiling cheekily. The twins looked at her and stared. As in _stared_ stared. Jessie looked down at herself, immediately self conscious.  
"What?" She asked suspiciously. The twins looked at each other, lost for words.  
"Damn Jess!" Charlie said, looking her over.  
"Excuse me?!"  
"What happened, you wave a magic wand or something?" Felix teased.  
"Yeah I could've sworn you were dead like, half an hour ago!" Charlie agreed with his brother.  
"Hey, it's a miracle what water and clean clothes can do, huh?" Jessie muttered, rolling her eyes.  
"Yeah and all that makeup you've got on. You look fresh from Hollywood or something!" Felix remarked.  
"I'm hardly wearing any!" Jessie protested. The twins shared a doubtful glance.  
"Well, you look lovely, Jess." Charlie said, smiling. Jessie glanced between them suspiciously.  
"... Why are you being nice? What do you want?" She asked, scowling. They both looked at each other before giving innocent grins.  
"We don't want anything!" They said together. It took Jessie a second to get what they were meaning, and she rolled her eyes at them  
"Vulgarity is no substitute for wit." She replied, crossing her arms she quoting one of her mothers favourite sayings.  
"You think you're gonna get it?" She asked, referring to the transfer and changing the topic. She wasn't really in the mood to muck about right now. Charlie smiled.  
"I think we all are." He replied, wrapping am arm around her. Jessie returned the smile and gave him a sideways hug.  
"Jevans" he whispered into her hair. Jessie pulled back and gave him her 'not impressed' face and elbowed him in the stomach, making both of them chuckle. Jessie looked around the hustle of excited engineers waiting to hear if they'd made the transfer. She hated the fact that she was so sure she was going to get it, and kept trying to find ways to get her hopes down so that she wouldn't be to disappointed if she didn't. She knew that she was going to get it though. Cam was so optimistic at breakfast, she just knew she would. The twins were babbling in their nonsense talk so Jessie slipped away and made her way to the far end of the gathering, as she did the day before. When she reached her place right on the end beside a couple of workers from Gipsy Danger, she could see that the pilots of the Jaegers had gathered and were talking amongst themselves, with Cam just behind. She easily picked out each pair - Sasha and Alexsis, obviously, the Wei Tan triplets that piloted Crimson Typhoon along with Gipsy's pilots, Raleigh and his new partner, Mako Mori. The other jaeger stationed at the Shatterdome, Coyote Tango, did not have pilots yet. As far as Jessie knew they were going to be picked up from somewhere in the continent any day now. Jessie smiled at Mako as they made eye contact. She had always known there was something different about her as soon as she moved to this Shatterdome, and she had trained with her a couple of times throughout her time here. Although they had never really properly spoken, they always greeted each other whenever they passed in hallways with a quiet "Hi" and a smile. Raleigh was undoubtably the most famous, and most beautiful Jaeger pilot out of all of them - everyone knew the tragic story of him and Yancy, who died five years ago in a Kaiju attack near Alaska. He was deep in conversation with Herc, who was listening intently to what Raleigh was saying and nodding occasionally. Jessie liked Herc. He was really down to earth and open about what he was thinking and feeling, just like her. Chuck however... well the jury was still out on her opinion of him. Jessie always had strong first impressions of people, and they were more often than not correct ones, but she couldn't figure out what to think of him at all. She frowned as she looked at him, standing beside his father, looking indifferent to the world. She thought he was a total meat head with little to no manners, but then again he had sort of saved her from some serious injuries last night, and he had actually warned her to be careful, proving that he could be a half decent human being at least. He hadn't seemed unfriendly at breakfast, especially after learning of the death of her parents. Jessie knew that she would be seeing a lot more of him when she got the move, and she couldn't tell whether that was good or bad. Whenever she looked at him she felt this emotion she couldn't identify, and it was bugging her. As she slowly came out of her thoughts, she realised that she had been staring at him for ages, and that he had seen her and been staring back, with a puzzled and slightly shocked look on his face. As Jessie realised she had been staring at him she snapped her eyes away, blushing furiously. Chuck just gave a small smile and a slight roll of his eyes, as he turned his attention to the balcony just above Jessie's head. After a few seconds, the murmuring from the crowd died down as Jessie heard heavy footsteps above her head. Her heart started racing in her chest. In a few minutes she would find out if she got to work on the only Mark 5 Jeager ever. Her hands started shaking as Marshall Pentecost began to speak.  
"The following have been chosen for transfer to help complete work on Striker Eureka. Adan Moffat, Mai Li, Chaung Xue, Antonio Fereras, Bao Shan, Theo Merritt, Finnegan O'Donnell, Lawrence Griffin..."  
Jessie heart was pounding as he read out the list.  
"...Brendon Gibson, Trace Byrant, Jerry Cook, Danika Moors..."  
_Any minute now..._  
"...Alex Pryer, Berty Petter, Oliver Fisher, Robert West..."  
_Three more... Me and the twins, please, please be me and the twins..._  
"Kieron Zhang, Miles Shipton..."  
Jessie's heart dropped as she realised she wouldn't be with the twins. They were going to be devastated. How could they not get chosen?! Maybe because they were wanted for pilots...  
"...and..."  
Jessie Evans. Please say Jessie Evans. Jessie held her breath, her heart hammering so hard against her chest she thought it was going to burst through her skin.  
"...Jay Stevens."  
Jessie's heart dropped like a stone. There must've been some mistake. He must've missed her out. As excited whispers rose from the crowd of engineers, those who had been chosen trying to see who else had been called and others congratulating them, Jessie felt tears sting behind her eyes. She had the chance and ruined it because she'd been so bloody stupid and basically insulted Marshall. If she'd listened and waited for Cam to request her, she would've got it. Fine, she got it if Cam had wanted to punish her for being insolent, but to act like she had got it was too far. She sighed and ran a hand over her face, desperately trying to to try and to find something optimistic that had come out of this. The twins hadn't got it either so she couldn't be happy for them, and as much as she liked Herc Hansen, him lying to her and saying he'd put in a good word for her was blatantly bullshit, and a hell of a dirty thing to do. She bit back her emotions as Marshall began to talk again.  
"Congratulations to those who were awarded a transfer. This is a huge opportunity for you and I expect you all to relish it. Please report to Chief Engineer Cameron St James immediately for a de-briefing." He said. Those who had their names called began to flock to Cameron who, after nodding to Pentecost, backed out of the crowd to address the transfers at the back. Jessie turned to walk away. She remembered Pentecost saying the day before that he was only taking the best. It was unfair, because she was the best and she knew it. She wasn't boasting, it was just common knowledge. She was tempted to look back at the twins' faces, at Cam's, at Sasha's and even at Chuck's, but she didn't want them to see her upset. She was normally very good at hiding her emotions, but not now. A few of the others who also hadn't been chosen began to disperse from the group before Marshall called them back.  
"Before you all go, I'd also like to announce the engineers picked for permanent transfers to Striker Eureka."  
_...Wait... What_?  
"Maurice Wright, Jack Ng, Felix Leigh, Charlie Leigh and Jessie Evans"  
_Come again_.  
"Report to Engineer St James immediately. Congratulations." Was all he said before Jessie heard him walk back to leave the Shatterdome above her head.  
She had been transferred.  
Permanently.

...  
What.  
She stood stock still for a moment, the words "Jessie Evans' and "permanent transfer" and "Striker Eureka" floating around inside her head, waiting to join up so she could actually make sense of them. She stood gobsmacked for a moment, before she saw Charlie and Felix coming towards her, beaming. Jessie's mouth opened and closed for a minute like a fish, struggling to think of something to say, when between them, she caught sight of Herc. He gave her a small smile and nodded his head. Then the words in Jessie's head clicked together, and she could've kissed him. Instead, she ran up to the twins, launched herself at them squealing with joy and kissed them instead.  
"We got it, oh my god, we GOT IT!" She shrieked, jumping up and down and clapping her hands together like a little girl. The twins clapped each other on the back, silently congratulating each other and each giving Jessie a hug. Try as she might, Jessie couldn't stop smiling as she linked arms with them and dragged over to Cam, her face aching from smiling so much. He saw the three approaching and rolled his eyes.  
"Ah, the Three Musketeers. Congratulations." He said with a mock bow to them. Giggling, Jessie detached herself from the twins and ran over to give him a hug, throwing her arms around his neck.  
"Thank you." She whispered into his ear. He hugged her back.  
"No problem. Couldn't think of anyone else better for the job." He pulled back so he could look at her.  
"But you two..." He said, jabbing a finger in the twins' direction.  
"... Look after her, okay? Or you're answering to me." He ordered. Seeing the horrified looks on the twins faces, Jessie pulled away from Cam.  
"Whatever! I can look after myself, you know!" She retorted, sticking her tongue out.  
"Don't you have work to do?" Cam teased before turning to address some other transfers.  
"I believe we do!" Jessie beamed. She turned and blew a kiss to Cherno Alpha.  
"Adios amigo! Lovely working with you!" She said as Charlie came up beside her.  
"Excited?" He asked. Jessie threw him a sarcastic look.  
"You had to ask?!"  
"Come on then Jevans, lets make some memories, eh?" Felix said, linking arms with her and smiling. Charlie linked arms on her other side and all three made their way across the Shatterdome towards Striker Eureka.  
Little did they know that this was going to be the very thing to change their lives forever.


	5. Chapter 5

***sigh* You will not believe the last two weeks I've had... working at the Fringe Festival, chose a new car, back to school, exams coming up eughhh, and on top of that my dog peed on my computer and wiped all my stuff so I had to re-write it -_-**

**Sucks to be me.**

**Anyway, thank you all for being so patient, I hope it was worth the wait!**

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As the trio approached Striker Eureka, the first thought that crossed Jessie's head was how mind numbingly more impressive than it was than Cherno. Every single surface was bright and gleaming, and it's more humanoid design made it look much bigger and elegant than Cherno's blunt bulkiness. As she walked towards it, still not quite believing this was happening, she noticed teams of people suspended on platforms around Striker's right knee joint, clearly trying to get behind it but with little success. They were trying to prise the side away so they could get a good look inside but considering they were all pretty big, tough guys, no way they were actually getting inside there. A spark of hope grew in Jessie's heart as she pondered the thought that came to her, but she quickly dismissed it, knowing that she couldn't afford to draw too much attention to herself. She cast a glance at the twins, both of them staring up at Striker. Felix was looking at her with the same look of awe he had had on his face when Herc first spoke to him and his brother. Charlie looked more calm, smiling slightly with his eyebrows raised as he looked up at the magnificent Jaeger. Jessie knew what he was thinking. He was just as thrilled as she was that they had been chosen for such a special task, and the fact that they'd been chosen all together was even better. They followed the flow of people in the general direction of one of Strikers feet, and as Jessie took in her new and unfamiliar surroundings with wide eyes, she saw they were headed towards four important looking people who were surveying the new arrivals. She knew two of them already, and she just wondered how the hell Herc and Chuck had managed to get over there so fast. She didn't know the other two, a tall, lanky man with red hair and a shorter, but still taller than her, man with jet black hair and of Asian descent.

"What do we do now?" She asked Felix, butterflies still fluttering in her stomach from excitement and nervousness. He shrugged, still staring up at Striker.  
"I reckon those guys are gonna tell us what to do." He muttered glancing at the important looking people. Charlie nodded in agreement. He was looking around at the other transfers. Most of them had adopted the same look of shock and awe as his brother, but both him and Jessie could pick out three or four who were striding over, looking so sure of themselves and cocky that Jessie look an immediate disliking to them. She could just tell they were going to be confrontational and obviously weren't going to appreciate this amazing opportunity. She was sure they were going to cause some kind of trouble eventually. Everyone else seemed decent enough though. She was slightly familiar with Danika Moors, being one of the only other girls around this place, she had worked with Antonio Fereras and Aidan Moffat when she helped on Crimson Typhoon, and Mai Li on Gipsy Danger. They were all nice, and Jessie was just grateful that she wasn't going to have to work beside people she didn't get on with. As the walking crowd gradually came to a stop in front of the Hansens and the other two, the red head began to talk.  
"Congratulations, all of you. You have all been commended for your work and we all expect you to appreciate it." He began. Jessie cast a sideways glance at the cock-sure guys she had seen strutting over. Somehow she doubted that they would.  
"My name is Ted Smith, and these are my colleagues, Tze Wha Low and, I'm sure you all know the pilots of Striker Eureka, Hercules and Chuck Hansen." Herc gave a small nod to Ted.  
"We are going to be assigning you to your new positions as of now, as I'm afraid there is no time for any formalities. Those selected for permanent transfer go to the Hansens. Those who are temporary, come over to Mr Low and I." He said, before stepping to the side. Jessie slipped through a few people and went over to talk to the Hansens. Also emerging from the crowd were the other two permanents, Jack Ng and Maurice Wright. She presumed that Jack was the smaller one with slightly tanned skin and dark hair, as Maurice was probably the biggest guy she had ever seen, and also with the biggest beard. He looked like the real life Hercules. He saw her staring at him in a cross between fear and curiosity and gave her a big smile. In that moment, Jessie decided that he was probably more of a teddy bear than anything else. He just looked gentle for someone of his size.  
"We just can't seem to keep away from each other, can we?" She was distracted from Bear and looked forward to see Herc looking at her and the twins with his arms crossed.  
"Apparently not, and we'll be seeing even more of each other now." Chuck replied for her. There was something about the way he said that. His face didn't give away any obvious emotions, but his voice had something behind it, and Jessie didn't think it was unfriendly. She decided to stay on his best side, to make things easier. She would have to bottle up her personal feelings and put her work first, or at least, she would try. Something told her, to her annoyance, that she wouldn't be able to do the same kind of work on here as she had done on Cherno. She was very hands on, and her and the twins had been the best of the workers there. Compared to the engineers working on Striker, she was a long way off being the best. She was going to have to accept that she would be told what to do.  
"Right, I want you two to get up to the top gangway and ask if there's anything to be done. If there is, do it." Herc told Jack and Maurice.  
"You two I want supporting the guys on the knee joint." He instructed Felix and Charlie, who nodded.  
"Stay away, but be ready to jump in if you're needed... which one of you is which anyway?!" He asked, looking between the two.  
"I'm Charlie, that's Felix." Charlie said, pointing to him and his brother. Seeing that Herc was still trying to find something different to tell them apart by, he added.  
"Just call us both Chelix if you want. We'll wear different shirts tomorrow." Herc was still staring between them, and slowly nodded his head.  
"Right... and you, I want you up to come with us. Got a little something special for you." He told Jessie, looking away from the twins and up to the teams working level with the knee. She nodded in agreement, feeling like she was going to explode from excitement. Talk about throwing her in at the deep end.  
"Right then. Off you go." He ordered the others. Felix flashed Jessie a "good luck" look before scurrying off after his brother and the others, leaving Jessie with the Hansens.  
"Shall we?" Herc said, leading off towards one of the metal flights of stairs making up the infrastructure surrounding Striker. Jessie looked expectantly at Chuck, waiting for him to follow his dad.  
"After you." He muttered with a small smile. Jessie stammered a thank you before turning and following Herc. He walked really fast.  
"How does it feel being one of the only girls around here Jessie?" She heard Chuck say as he fell into step with her. Something inside her told her that he didn't mean for it to sound as snide as it had done. Suddenly all thoughts of keeping her feelings to herself went out the window.  
"Pretty good. It's nice to know that, contrary to popular opinion, one of the best workers around here is female." She snapped back.  
Chuck shrugged.  
"You think you're the best?" He said doubtfully.  
"No. I know I am. Flat out banking on it." Jessie retorted, quickening her pace to keep up with Herc and to get away from Chuck before she'd say something she'd have to apologise for. Annoyingly, he easily caught her up.  
"Look, I know you don't like me, okay? And to be honest I don't know why. I'm sure you have your reasons. But considering we're going to be bumping into each other all day almost every day, I think it would be best if we tried to get along." He replied, striding ahead of her to catch up with Herc. Jessie was livid. He didn't know why? Because he was a selfish, delusional, rude, arrogant person who's head was so far up his butt he could see out of his mouth, and to be honest...  
To be honest, he wasn't really.  
Jessie couldn't believe what she was thinking, but then she actually thought it over. He hadn't been really nasty to her. True, he'd been slightly annoying, but he hadn't actually said anything to her to make her properly cross... he didn't know about her parents when he'd asked at breakfast, he had cautioned her about being safe the night before, he hadn't told on her for working after hours and he'd practically saved her life. True, when they first met he was seemingly angry at her, but if you'd just been ploughed into from behind and knocked to the floor, you would be to. All of the doubts she'd had about him suddenly went flying out of the window. She realised that if he had made a remark, it was only because she'd made one back to start with... she was such an idiot! He thought she was the one being unfriendly! Mentally kicking herself, she wanted to run after him and apologise profusely, but now wasn't the time. She'd talk to him later. Dodging past people, she followed the Hansens, who were talking to each other about something, clearly disagreeing and had apparently forgotten about Jessie completely. She was still shaking from what seemed like enlightenment to her, but she kept up none the less. She followed them up, running up flight after flight of stairs, and after a while found herself struggling to keep up with their relentless pace. Eventually, when she was just about to have to have a break, they stopped, and looked back. Immediately, she scurried up the last few stairs and stopped beside them, trying not to let them see how out of breath she was. She heard Herc call something over the barrier, and a huge winch type thing began to move from being her head. She peered around his shoulder to see the one of the platforms she had seen surrounding Striker's knee joint was being winched back in to the supporting structure. Once again, there was a rave of butterflies going on in her stomach as she realised what was happening.  
"Am I seriously..." She stammered, pointing to the platform. Herc was too busy to hear her.  
"Yep. If that's okay with you, of course..." Chuck answered for him, glancing at Jessie, a smile playing on his lips. Her ecstatic smile confirmed that it was indeed "okay". The platform had now been pulled back to the main structure, and Herc was having a hushed conversation with one of the men stood on it. All the others were eyeing Jessie up. She reddened under their stares and tried to hide behind Chuck.  
"Right. Jessie, this is Will Burton and he's gonna give you a crash course in what's going on over there okay? Any questions don't hesitate to ask him." Herc said, introducing the blond man he was talking to.  
"Right, sorry to rush off, but we have some... business to attend to." Herc apologised, glancing at his son, who looked suitably uncomfortable. With a last smile at Jessie and a mouthing of a "good luck", he hurried back down the stairs, albeit with a reluctant Chuck following him behind. Jessie stood, glaring after them for a moment, stunned by how fast things seemed to be going. It barely seemed like a second ago she'd arrived at the Jaeger and now she was being trusted with the most important job currently going on on it.  
"Hurry up." She heard Will order from behind her.  
"Put this in." He ordered, giving her a small clear ear piece. Obediently, Jessie activated it, slotting it into her ear.  
"What do I do with it?" She asked, poking at it until it fitted snugly. She was met by a look of derision from Will.  
"You don't do anything. You wait and listen for people to tell you what to do. And you do it." He replied, climbing back onto the platform.  
"You don't say..." She murmured, tapping the earpiece experimentally.  
"Hurry UP!"  
Jessie spun into action, jumped up onto the platform, or rather, was pulled by Will, and found herself crushed between yet again more disgusting, large men.  
Oh the perks of her job.  
Squirming through them, trying her best to avoid as much bodily contact as possible as they began to winch themselves back towards Strikers knee, she eventually made it to the far end, and found herself a small bit of breathing space. Looking down, she could still see a few remaining transfers being assigned and thanked her lucky stars that she had been so fortunate. She was definitely in the favour of someone today. She perched herself in the corner, and took the time to get a good view of the repair work on the knee joint as they approached it. There were two other platforms suspended around it, each containing about ten engineers who were arguing loudly and poking around at the source of the problem, with completely no idea what to do. She risked tapping the nearest person, who didn't make her want to throw up and who actually looked clean, on the shoulder.  
"So what's the problem?" She asked casually.  
"There's something trapped inside the knee socket. We're not quite sure what, although best bet is that it's a piece of debris from another Jaeger left from the last attack. But it sure wont budge!" Non-disgusting man replied. Jessie nodded trying to push down that growing idea that she could easily slip behind the panel and dislodge whatever it was. She was easily a foot and a half smaller than some of the people she could see working on it. Of course, she wasn't going to say anything unless she was asked, because firstly, it would be to attention drawing, secondly, even though she'd studied the inner and outer workings of all the Jaegers and knew them back to front, she still didn't feel that confident, especially considering it was the only ever Mark 5 and she didn't want to break it. Thirdly, it was immediately obvious that she wasn't going to be listened to in any way, shape or form. The guys already working on it weren't even listening to each other, and they were all up in each others faces. To even get into someones face, Jessie would need a bloody trampoline, plus she was only a cadet, so completely insignificant in their eyes.  
"You're new, aren't you?" The non-disgusting guy asked, disturbing Jessie from her thoughts. She nodded in reply.  
"Cool. I'm Dustin." He introduced himself, giving her a nod.  
"Jessie."  
"You're an Aussie huh? Kinda fits!" He said with a smile of amusement, nodding his head at the Australian Jaeger. Jessie returned the smile.  
"It does a bit. And you're an American, I'm gonna say... Texas?" She asked, putting the rather cowboyish name and the accent together. Dustin laughed.  
"Close. Louisiana." He corrected her. Jessie was about to ask him if he was a cadet, when there was a shout from the other end of the platform.  
"Sorry. I'm needed." He mumbled apologetically, before roughly shoving his way through the people in the direction of the shout. Jessie stared after him and realised what a stupid thing she'd done when she'd first got on this thing. She managed to get herself right to the very back corner of the platform, as far away from the problem as she could get, and she was blocked in by a whole load of guys who were heads and shoulders taller than her. She couldn't even see what they were supposed to be doing. She tried politely asking the three giants around her to move, but they didn't even hear her.  
Unbelievable.  
Of course, she knew that even if she did miraculously manage to get herself heard, they wouldn't listen to her, because she was only a trainee, and not yet fully qualified. She tried in vain to shout her suggestions, and was doing everything she could think of short of physically barging through people, which she didn't on the sole purpose of not wanting to create a scene. Her temper and patience were fast running out, so she made the wise decision to remove herself from the rabble of people all yelling at the same time. Not quite believing the ironic and highly frustrating situation, she leaned up against the corner, feeling annoyed and sulking.  
If no one's even going to even bloody listen to me, I don't see why I should grace them with my presence.

* * *

Hours and hours had passed, and Jessie was struggling to keep her eyes open. She had resorted to sitting about two hours ago, when her legs finally have up and the adrenaline caused by her annoyance had worn off. She sat in the corner, completely spent on yelling in a failed attempt to get herself heard. She knew that a few of the people around her had heard her suggestions, but they merely sneered and ignored her, muttering something about her not having enough experience. Jessie had begun to realise that being a transfer was basically just like being an apprentice - you had to watch and listen, but keep your mouth shut and accept that you were going to be ignored. She sighed and leant back against the corner, wishing that the shift would be over soon. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could bare! It sucked being her, she concluded. She was short. Way too short, barely even topping 5,2 on a good day. She was too easy to look over, which she played to her advantage most times, but at times like this, when she needed to be listened to, no one even seemed to know she existed, that annoyed her. Then there was her lack of ability to look good in anything but oily combats. She honest to god looked like a man in drag whenever she wore a dress, and although she had an adored, extensive collection of high heels, she never wore them - never had the chance. She had never had a boyfriend. She had a really annoying laugh. She had no family, and three friends. Whoop whoop. Her work meant that a social life was totally and utterly out of the question, and she hadn't been on a girls night out in... she'd never been on a girls night out. The last "night out" she'd been to was the twins' birthday. She rested her head on the metal bar and looked out across the Shatterdome, felling miserable about how sorry her life was and watching people running frantically around on the ground. She saw the Wei Tan triplets racing across to Crimson Typhoon, all three dressed in their full flight armour.  
Wait a minute.  
Why were they doing that?  
Why was everyone running frantically?  
Why were the huge red lights flashing above the door?  
Suddenly, the sound around Jessie came rushing back into her ears as she realised she should probably be paying attention to what was going on. She snapped her head up as she heard klaxons, alarms, shouting and yelling from all around her. She looked up and saw the hangar roof open as dozens of winches were lowered through them by the Apache helicopters preparing to winch Cherno Alpha out of the Shatterdome. A whirring noise caught her attention. Looking up, she saw the vision shield of Striker lighting up as the Jaeger began initiation sequences. One word raced across her mind.  
Kaiju.  
Jessie heart immediately leapt to her mouth as everyone of the platform surged forward, yelling at the top of their voices, frantically trying to repair the joint so the Jaeger could be sent out and protect the city. She could see people running, instructions being yelled from one platform to the other. Someone at the front yelled back for any suggestions. Jessie immediately screamed that she could do it... at the same time as everyone else was yelling ideas. She was stood right at the back in the corner, eye level with everyone's backs, couldn't be seen and definitely couldn't be heard. She screamed again, jumping up and down in a pathetic attempt to be heard, but to no avail. She looked around frantically for an idea. She had considered squeezing through the mass, put that carried the serious and real fear that she would get trampled. She looked down, trying to see if there was anyone who could help her get attention. To her dismay, she couldn't pick out anyone from the heaving mass of people racing for the bulkhead door out of the Shatterdome, as they knew the Jaegers were going out. She growled in annoyance. She turned around and screamed again, her voice cracking painfully as she yelled at the top of her voice. She could see the gap between the knee cap and the joint. She could see the people trying to fit into it, and she could see that there was no hope in a million years of them doing it. She couldn't jump because it was too far. She couldn't squeeze through people because she would asphyxiate. She couldn't even climb over people because she was too small. She could feel herself getting more and more angry. Her anger reflected in the pulsing red lights on the walls, she started screaming again, blood roaring in her ears. Of course, no one heard her, so Jessie decided to take drastic action. She climbed over the barrier on the edge of the platform, swinging her legs over and planting them on the small ledge on the other side. Gripping hard onto the barrier so that she didn't fall to her death, she sidestepped along it, making her way to the front of the platform so that she could talk to Will. As she breezed past the rabble, one by one they all stopped talking and were staring at her in shock. Apparently noticing the sudden silence waving through the workers, the next thing Jessie saw was Will's head, sticking out over the barrier, and fuming.  
"What the hell do you think you're doing, cadet?!" He boomed, reaching over and pulling her over the rail and back onto the platform. Shrugging away the rough treatment, Jessie finally made herself heard.  
"I had the best idea and no one was listening." She replied bluntly. Before Will could ask what this idea was, Jessie continued.  
"Let me get behind the panel. I can fit, and I know what I have to do!" She pleaded to him. He glanced between her and the live Jaeger doubtfully.  
"Listen to her Will. I mean look at her. She's tiny. She's got a better chance to fix it than he does." Jessie glanced over Will's shoulder to see Dustin standing behind him, smiling at her and pointing to the big man currently trying to get his leg behind the panel. She looked up to Will with begging eyes when she heard static fill her ear.  
"Alright guys, good try, but we don't have the time. She's just gonna have to out like this. Everyone out of the Dome. Now." From the looks on everyone's faces, Jessie knew they'd all heard Herc's announcement too. Will reached up and touched his earpiece.  
"Affirmative, sir. Heading out now." He said, glaring at Jessie. Outraged, Jessie mimicked his action of using the earpiece, jabbing at it in an attempt to get it to work. She heard a click, and knew that she'd done it.  
"Not affirmative! Sir, I can fix it if Mr Burton will let me, I just need a minute..." She began, to be cut off by Will sharply grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand away from her ear.  
"I'm sorry, sir. Just a cadet who's too big for her boots." He sneered, apologising to Jessie and roughly shoving her hand back to her side.  
"Was that Jessie?"  
Jessie didn't realise Chuck was linked in on this channel too. Will looked at her, confused.  
"Yes sir, Jessie Evans..."  
"Let her do it! She's a midget, if anyone's going to do it, she will!" He interrupted. Jessie paused between being grateful that he was sticking up for her and him insulting her by calling her a midget.  
"Sir, with respect..." Will began, about to object. Jessie cut him off, by pressing on the device in her ear.  
"I know I can do it. I just need a minute." She insisted, ignoring Wills stares. The line went silent for a minute. Jessie's heart was racing as she waited for an answer.  
"Well hurry up then! God's sake, all of you quit arguing and get it done!" Herc teased. Jessie thought it was remarkable how he was still managing to joke about this considering the urgency of the situation. Barely managing a smile, she slipped over the barrier of the platform again, steadying herself. Jessie felt a hand on her shoulder before she jumped across. She looked back to see Dustin standing behind her with a small smile.  
"Anything you need." He murmured. Gratefully, Jessie muttered her thanks, before launching herself across the gap, and gracefully landing on the edge of the knee panel. She sidled along it to the opening, which had been pulled back slightly by the other engineers on the adjacent platform. When she saw it, a pit of doubt opened up in her stomach as she realised she might not get through it. It was very narrow. Sighing and sucking in, making herself as thin as possible, she sidestepped through the gap. She had a tiny bit of difficulty fitting when it came to her chest area, but after a significant amount of very unladylike manoeuvres, she made it through. It took her eyes a second to adjust to the darkness before her, and when they did, it dawned on her that she had no idea what she was looking for. She grabbed onto the various metal bolts, beams and wires that made up the knee joint, and made her way towards the back of the knee, balancing precariously on random bars connecting the exoskeleton to the inner workings. The noise was unbelievably loud, but then again considering the Jaeger was online, and if Herc or Chuck moved so much as an inch, she would be crushed. Concentrating on the mission, she remembered that Dustin had said that there had been something jammed inside the knee socket. She clambered over the metal hydraulics controlling the movement of the lower leg, careful not to trap her fingers in any of the whirring gears, hauling herself over different glowing operating systems and parts. She reached up to grab onto another bar when she realised that it looked slightly out of place from the geometric style of everything else around her. Leaning back to take a look at it, she saw that it wasn't connected to anything, but half of it was jammed underneath one of the hydraulics, which she could see would restrict the movement. Something inside of her sparked as she swung, climbed and ducked back through the spiders web of metal and wire back towards the hole in the panel. She was going to need a laser cutter to cut it free. Catching a glimpse of daylight, she stuck her hand through the hole, and shouted "laser cutter" as loud as she could, not bothering to wait for her eyes to adjust again so she could see who she was yelling at. She heard someone shout to her left in a reply, she reached out her hand blindly. As soon as she felt cool metal against her skin, she turned and dived back inside the knee. She pulled herself up to perch on a beam just beside the rogue shard of metal, considering her next move. She heard a crackling in her earpiece.  
"How's it going?" She heard Herc ask.  
"I can see the problem. Shard stuck in one of the hydraulics. Cutting it now." She muttered, concentrating to make sure she didn't accidentally cut something that she didn't need to. Her brow furrowed as she raised the laser and drew a line through the middle of the shard, slicing it in two. Almost immediately, the segments snapped, and the whole area she was sitting in creaked as pressure was relieved from the joint. She reached forwards and pulled the two shards of rough metal out from under the hydraulic. They were bigger than she had previously thought they were, and she didn't think she could get them both out at the same time. She knew she couldn't make two trips - she didn't have the time, so she gathered her strength and tucked the two metal pieces under her arm. She felt a burning sting across her forearm as it brushed against the razor sharp edges, slicing at her flesh. Trying to ignore the pain and the blood trickling down her arm, she struggled back towards the entrance hole, keeping her grip on the shards as tight as she could get it as to not let them drop. She had to carry the laser in her mouth, using her free hand to pull herself through the inner workings of the Jaeger. When she once again reached the entrance, she leaned up against the wall, taking the laser from her mouth and shoving it though the hole. She felt it disappear after a few seconds. She them climbed up so half of her body was outside, and carefully making sure not to catch them on anything, passed the broken slices of metal out to the arms of a waiting technician. She then struggled through the rest of the gap, raising her hands in a thumbs up gesture, causing the three teams to erupt in applause. Looking around, she smiled to see that even Will was clapping, albeit very slowly, and with annoyance plastered across his face. Jessie rolled her eyes as she wiped the back of her hand across her sweaty face, before she sidestepped back to her waiting platform to be met by a huge embrace from Dustin. Jessie stood for a moment, surprised and squashed, before he pulled away and flashed her a massive smile.  
"That was amazing, Jessie." He praised, clapping her on the shoulder.  
"Nothing to it really." She shrugged with a side smile as the platform started to move back towards the main structure. She tapped on her earpiece.  
"Okay, how does that feel?" She asked the Hansens.  
"Perfect. Well done kid. Knew you'd be perfect for the job." Came Herc's reply. Jessie smiled to herself as the roof opened to allow the helicopters to remove the battle ready Jaeger from the Shatterdome. Looking around, Jessie saw that every single other Jaeger, apart from Coyote Tango, had been sent out already. It must be pretty serious. Forcing herself to remain calm as the platform came to rest and everyone jumped off, she looked up to see Striker Eureka being lifted up and out, ready to jump in and defend the world. She couldn't resist one final little tease to keep spirits up.  
"You better come back. I've only just been transferred, so don't you go getting your arses whooped by some overgrown lizard before I even get to properly work on the bloody robot." She said, pressing on her earpiece. We was met my laughs from both the pilots.  
"Seriously? You think we'd rob you of the opportunity? Glad you have so much faith in us(!)" Chuck replied in good humour. Jessie sniggered in reply.  
"Whatever. See you later. Good luck!" She managed to say just before they were taken out of signal range and she lost the connection. She couldn't help thinking that might've been the last time she ever spoke to Chuck... and Herc, of course. She quickly shoved that idea out of her head. They wouldn't, they'd practically promised her another go on Striker, and they wouldn't break it.  
"Jess? Come on! Lets get you to the med bay." Dustin called for her, holding out a hand to help her down off the platform. So much for keeping her head down. She could already hear the lectures she was going to get for this stunt. Jessie reached out and took it, jumping down from the platform as the hangar roof clunked shut behind her.  
She prayed they were going to be okay.


End file.
